Many Americans seem to think that the immigration "problem" has to do with enforcement rather than policy. Democrats are soft on enforcement, fascists are tough. But the biggest problem of all is the failure by Congress to make an effective immigration policy. Neither the laws nor the institutions charged with carrying out the laws have kept up with the tumult of immigration. This has been by design.
The principle strategy of the Republican Party has been to keep immigration and the migrant influx into American communities as chaotic and unregulated as possible, the better to highlight their racist bonafides and keep the issue roiling and unresolved, a perpetual irritant to the American electorate. Republicans lie and deride established fact, exaggerate the fearsome pet-eating otherness of the dark-skinned invading horde as pretext for seeking military rather than policy solutions. Policy is simply not up to the task of meeting the savagery of their made-up alien emergency. Then they blame Democrats, and the government in general, for failing to bring order to the immigration process. It’s a winning strategy for the fascists.
I don't think it's too much of a stretch to say that sabotaging immigration policy has been the Republicans' most potent political strategy of the past 50 years. In doing so they've stymied the democratic process (not just on immigration, but altogether), leading people to see government as inept, to lose faith in democracy, and vote for a cruel autocrat, while giving voters a "legitimate" forum to express their racist bile.
Trump and the Republicans’ current laser focus on "immigration" (Note: they’re not making policy per se, just performing ritual militaristic cruelties) confirms that Republicans recognize this policy abomination to be the crux of their political success.
It’s an example of their systemic racism.